In various arts, such as the strip recorder art and others, practioners often are confronted with a need to wind a length of strip or sheet material onto a spool or bobbin. In such cases, the abilities to quickly and reliably thread the spool when a length of strip is to be wound and to easily remove the wound strip from the spool when winding has been completed, are particularly important. The prior art discloses numerous attempts to provide spools or roller mechanisms which satisfy these requirements; however, for various reasons, devices known to the applicant have proven to be unsatisfactory. For example, many prior art devices comprise complex linkages for gripping the strip of material, which make assembly and disassembly difficult. Others require that the spool roll open outwardly to release the strip so that the roll cannot be removed from a wound strip of material.